Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Putting Pressure on Tax-Avoiding Companies
Tax is a thorny issue. Raise it in most social situations and you will be met with stony silence and stern looks that tell you this is not something people are comfortable discussing in public. However, tax justice is...
4 Ways You Can Eat More Ethically Now
Recently, an IF Campaign was launched throughout the United Kingdom. It's a massive, national campaign to address the fact that in the rest of the world nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry every night and 2...
Why So Many Christians Break the 9th Commandment
How lightheartedly we break the ninth commandment: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Exodus 20:16). This is a constant problem in my area of work: Christian-Muslim relations. Granted, some...
Czech Baptists and Church-State Separation
Recently, I visited the offices of the Czech Baptist Union in Prague, whose leaders of these past few years have become my respected friends. They are always supportive of the European Baptist Federation (EBF) and were...
The Answer to Solving Your Next Spiritual Meltdown
I woke up recently to my daughter in great distress. The evening before we had cleaned her room and this included closing up the dollhouse to clean around it. The next morning when she opened it back up, everything was...
A Spiritual Perspective to Your Online Etiquette
I don't buy into it – the language on both sides of the political debates that serve only to demean the other side's position to the point of labeling "them" as "destroyers of America" or "God's judgment on our...
Sweet success
I have some small reputation among friends for trying new foods and enjoying different tastes. One of my favorite dishes is a type of Korean barbecue called bulgogi -- very thinly sliced beef in a sweet soy and sesame...
The same old play: passing the blame
By John Pierce Tim Tebow’s professional football career appears to be slipping away. And now he finds himself in a public relations squeeze as well. Personally, I’ve always liked him. Sometimes I cringe,...
Teaching Your Princess to Make Responsible Choices
As father to a daughter and husband to a woman who has long believed in female empowerment, I am very cognizant of the "princess culture" believed to be perpetuated by corporations like Disney. The idea is that from an...
Laws and Morality: Changing Hearts Over Time
"You can't legislate morality!" This was a familiar line in the chorus of objection to the civil rights and voting laws of the early 1960s. The idea was that passing laws won't make people love each other and create...
4 Steps to Help Lay Leaders Start New Churches
On any given Sunday, there are more people outside the walls of the churches than within, and few of these will be in Christian worship at any other time during the week. Some leaders see starting new churches – new...
The Test
A sermon by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston Salem, N.C. Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Luke 4:1-13 A woman brought home a very expensive dress. Her husband asked, “Why did you buy that dress, dear? You know...
The Leading Causes of Life: Connection
A Sermon By Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga. Hebrews 10:19-25 Meditation Text: Humans are social creatures. Capable of only brief episodes of solitude, human life thrives on our social...
Be Careful What You Promise
Luke 4:1-13 A sermon by Robert Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky. “I couldn’t help it,” Irish playwright Oscar Wilde wrote. “I can resist everything but temptation.” This morning, our attention is...
Following Jesus in the Wilderness
A Sermon by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock , Ar. Luke 4:1-13 4Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2where for forty days he...
Teach Us to Number Our Days: 40 Days in the Wilderness
A sermon by Jim Somerville, First Baptist Church Richmond, Va. The First Sunday in Lent Psalm 90; Luke 4:1-13; Philippians 3: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the...
Saying No In Order To Say Yes
A sermon by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo. The First Sunday of Lent Luke 4:1-13 Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13 A few years back, two priests who were friends...
Being Obedient to God Through Serving Others
Two comments have stayed with me over the past few years and for the same reason. "Because of our Welfare State, it's hard in the U.K. for the church to find social needs to respond to," explained a young man to a...
How 3 Alabama Churches United for Their Community
Several years ago, I was approached about participating in a program where pastors might become friends across differences - race, age and denomination - and learn from each other. Rev. Arthur Price and I decided to...
For Generation Y, It’s All About Belonging
Diana Butler Bass (along with others) is publishing frequently about the sociological shifts occurring in churches. She's helped us see that church growth used to be based on the formula: "Believe. Behave. Belong." If...
Eggy faces
How low can Congress go, at least in the category of job approval? An average of seven different polls taken during the past month showed that only 15.6 percent of Americans approve of the job our law-makers are doing,...